Representative Andi Story and Senator Jesse Kiehl (Photo from Senator Kiehl’s Facebook page)
Juneau, Alaska (KINY) – Representative Andi Story and Senator Jesse Kiehl held a town hall Thursday at Yadaa.at Kalé Juneau Douglas High School.
It was the first general town hall held since the legislative session ended.
Representative Sara Hannan was unable to attend.
This week, Governor Mike Dunleavy vetoed half of the $175 million one-time public school funding increase approved by the Alaska Legislature.
Recently, Superintendent Bridget Weiss gave word on Action Line that the Governor’s veto leaves Juneau School District with a $758,000 shortfall.
“It is detrimental, it is incredibly disappointing after the long legislative season that we had there with a lot of support for education,” Weiss said. “The board will come back to the board on Monday and start talking about how to resolve that difference because now we have an unbalanced budget because we know the revenue is less than what we budgeted.”
The first special meeting to revise the budget is 4:00 p.m. Monday, Jun. 26 in Thunder Mountain High School’s library. Attending over Zoom is also possible.
Another meeting will commence on Jul. 11.
Rep. Andi Story called education “a really important priority for our community” at the town hall. She said both she and Senator Kiehl worked hard to have the base student allocation (BSA) bill in their committees, and that they need to be doing two-year funding for their schools because, without it, the school district cannot plan out their budget, causing “anxiety and unrest”.
The Juneau School District makes assumptions for projected enrollment and revenue streams. Their budget has to be balanced by the end of March to submit to the city.
Instead of an increased base student allocation being approved this year, the $175 million one-time public school funding increase was approved by the Alaska Legislature, offering $680 towards each student. It was a historical increase.
Now, it is down to $340 per student.
Rep. Story said that the veto has put education more front and center in people’s minds. She said she remains hopeful for long-term education funding for next year because she thinks this veto “will spur more advocates” even if an override doesn’t happen.
An override of a veto requires 45 out of the 60 votes in the Alaska Legislature, and a BSA is placed on the highest veto override in all 50 states.
Rep. Story called that a high bar to meet, but as they speak, “people are burning up the phone lines and working on that”.
Rep. Story also acknowledged that they have been hearing from people who don’t feel validated as an educator, and consistently seeing that people are moving out of the state for better job opportunities or better education resources for their children.
“I know that it’s so important to keep people in the state,” Rep. Story said. “To know that we’re going to fund our schools.”
She said when they start in January, House Finance will take up the BSA bills and hear from more people about an increase.
Rep. Story also spoke on the Alaska READS Act. She said the Department of Education is about to approve the regulations for that. The goal of the Alaska READS Act is to increase literacy levels at early ages.
“We put $3 million towards that effort,” she said. “We funded a couple more reading specialists, there’s $1.5 million for teacher housing, teacher recruitment.”
Sen. Jesse Kiehl spoke on childcare.
“One of the ones we’re all extremely proud of is seven and a half million dollars statewide to help with childcare. That is a breakthrough. That is a tremendous move forward,” he said. “I’m pleased to say in the governor’s recent vetoes, he left that money, and that money is on the books.”
In a Business Climate Survey released on May 19, 51% of Southeast business leaders reported childcare as a factor for not being able to hire staff.
Sen. Kiehl added that after COVID-19, federal support faded away, and childcare wages dropped in an industry “not attracting enough people to do the work.” Sen. Kiehl called it a workforce issue, an economic issue, and that generals and admirals tell the legislature it’s also a military force readiness issue.
“That’s how far our childcare problems have gone,” he commented. “This seven and a half-million dollars is a good start.”
Sen. Kiehl also addressed “a serious problem with suicide inside our correctional institutions”.
Alaska’s Department of Corrections commissioner told legislators in Feb. of 2023 that the 18 in-custody deaths in 2022 – seven of which were a result of suicide – were high.
Corrections ended in 2022 with a decade-high number of deaths.
“Our correctional officers are not medical personnel, they do everything they can, but that’s not what they’re trained for,” Senator Kiehl said. “The Department of Corrections is the largest provider of behavioral health services, mental health services in the state of Alaska.”
The budget funds inmate transportation to and from Juneau due to the ongoing construction at Lemon Creek Correctional Center, which means people arrested in Juneau can appear in court, according to Kiehl. Also of note is $175,000 for a study on how the Department of Corrections can reduce suicides among incarcerated people. The study will bring in experts to see what they can change.
They worked with the commissioner on this who agreed they could use the help.
Oftentimes, people die in the correctional center who are not yet convicted, Sen. Kiehl added.
“They have to survive to face trial,” he stated.
Rep. Story said 90% of the inmates are going to be coming back into the community, and they want them to come out with good skill sets.
Sen. Kiehl also spoke in support of stabilization centers being built to follow the Crisis Now Model. The new Aurora Behavioral Health Center in Juneau is the first in the state to implement Crisis Now.
Other issues to keep addressing in the next session, according to Sen. Kiehl and Rep. Story, are staffing the ferry system, substance abuse, more mental health resources, and housing.
Another ongoing priority is giving public service workers the option to pay into a pension.
“I’m so proud to be from Juneau because we have such a great, caring community,” Rep. Story said, concluding the town hall.
To watch the entire Town Hall, visit here.